Learn About the Mar Vista Great Streets Project

A pilot project is underway, testing new lane configurations, parking, and safer crossing points for people walking on Venice Blvd between Beethoven St and Inglewood Blvd. The changes are designed to enhance safety, support Mar Vista’s vibrant neighborhood, and enhance the small business climate.

The Project Features the Following Key Enhancements and Benefits:

New Crossing Points: LADOT installed four new crosswalks on Venice Blvd at Mountain View Ave, Ocean View Ave, Boise St, and Meier St, with new signals and crosswalk striping to increase the visibility of people crossing the street.

Transit Enhancements: The City of Los Angeles installed two solar-powered bus benches with USB ports and one bus shelter with USB ports and free WiFi. Real time bus-travel information will be coming later in 2017.

Community Art Installations: Painted more than 10 wall murals, 4 utility box murals, and streetlight banners, as well as developed a community art project with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation’s first ever Artist-in-Residence.

Enhancing Safety

This section of Venice Blvd has experienced a high rate of traffic related injuries. From 2003-2016, 360 collisions involving injury occurred on Venice Blvd. Over half of the serious injuries involved people walking and biking. Five people lost their lives.

The process for reimagining the Mar Vista corridor began in 2015, when Councilman Mike Bonin prioritized this stretch of Venice Blvd under the Mayor’s Great Streets Initiative. Making safety improvements along this segment of Venice Blvd gained additional attention when it was identified as a High-Injury Network Priority Corridor in the City of Los Angeles’ first ever Vision Zero Action Plan, published in 2017. Vision Zero uses collision data to prioritize safety improvements aimed at ending preventable traffic deaths by 2025.

Neighborhood Input

Community outreach during 2015 and 2016— including community meetings and surveys— revealed that Mar Vista neighbors wanted a main street that is safe for people walking and supportive of the continued growth of restaurants, local shopping, farmers’ markets, and other amenities. The initial work has prioritized safety changes, but also includes other neighborhood enhancement projects, like increased street sweeping, median landscaping, and public art. In the future, permanent parklets could be added.

Pilot Project Includes Ongoing Monitoring and Community Input

Construction on the lane changes began in March 2017 and completed in June 2017, marking the beginning of the pilot project. LADOT used materials that allow for quick installation. These low-cost safety improvements may become more permanent if parts of the project are adopted after the pilot phase. The construction phase of the project initially caused additional traffic congestion along the corridor, due to necessary lane closures to install the new traffic signals. These impacts are expected to abate after an adjustment period of about one month.

LADOT is monitoring project impacts and benefits at one month, three month and six month intervals.